Guidelines for the grant program are broad as to be nonexistent and riddled with politics, the report says.

“FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) could not explain precisely how the UASI program has closed security gaps or prepared the nation in the event of another attack. In part, FEMA has done very little oversight of the program, allowing cities to spend the money on almost anything they want, as long as it has broad ties to terror prevention.”

Broad indeed, if one supposes that terrorists may one day unleash feral hogs on the people of Liberty County northeast of Houston.

Following that 2008 storm, “thousands of head of livestock were run out of their normal pastureland due to high water or escaped due to damaged fences,” Tom Branch, Liberty County coordinator of emergency management and homeland security, said via e-mail.

By state mandate, counties must evacuate people who cannot do so on their own, Branch said. This mandate extends to their pets.

So far, though, the snares have not been used.

“To my knowledge they have not been used as we have been fortunate enough not to have a disaster since they were purchased,” Branch said. “These are not things one would use daily, but this equipment would be invaluable when trying to round up animals during a disaster.”

Also unused is the six-figure drone, a Vanguard ShadowHawk, purchased by the sheriff’s department in Montgomery County north of Houston, population, 471,734. (For a photo of the ShadowHawk, see page 44 of the report.)

In an astonishing coincidence few could have foreseen, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has filed eight times as many lawsuits against the federal government under President Barack Obama than his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Abbott has sued the United States 24 times at a cost to Texas taxpayers of $2.58 million over Obama’s time in office, according to an Associated Press story today.

Abbott, a Republican who first took office in 2002, sued the federal government a total of three times between 2004 and 2007, years when Bush served as president. He has become a leader among Republican attorneys general in recognizing a change in presidential administrations.

In his five-year strategic plan for the Attorney General’s office, Abbott’s first three principles for the philosophy of state government are:

First and foremost, Texas matters most. This is the overarching, guiding principle by which we will make decisions. Our state, and its future, is more important than party, politics, or individual recognition.

Government should be limited in size and mission, but it must be highly effective in performing the tasks it undertakes.

Decisions affecting individual Texans, in most instances, are best made by those individuals, their families, and the local government closest to their communities.

Abbott told Associated Press his hard line with the federal government constituted "a fight against the unprecedented ideology coming from the Obama administration."

Critics including Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, Texas House Democratic Caucus leader, said all the suing was expensive at a time of budget austerity for the Legislature.

Although its budget figures do not include 2009, Obama’s first year in office, the $2.58 million spent on federal lawsuits represents .9 percent of the $274 million budgeted for all litigation, legal services and counseling between 2010 and 2012, according to the budget.

The budget for litigation, legal services and counseling has increased by 22.1 percent, from $81.6 million in 2010 to $99.6 million budgeted for 2012. Total federal lawsuit expenses represent 14.3 percent of the $18 million increase over the last three budget years.

When we publish incorrect information, Texas Watchdog ‘fesses up to it and quickly corrects the record.

We are proud that that is a rarity, but unfortunately that’s what we need to do today.

Texas Watchdog blogged below on a piece in the Washington Examiner about government-leased office space and vacancy rates at Texas properties. The story was based on data from the General Services Administration.

The agency publishes a monthly spreadsheet on its website of property it leases across the country, including a column of data entitled “Percent Occupied.” Based on the latter data, The Washington Examiner published a story online last week that said the GSA had leased numerous properties that were largely unoccupied.

Multiple telephone requests to the agency for comment on that story were unreturned prior to its publication.

But the occupancy statistic in those spreadsheets is actually meant to show how much space in each building GSA leases, (agency spokesman Adam) Elkington said.

The agency’s leased office space around the country is 2.3 percent vacant, Elkington tells the Examiner.

It is not clear what the actual occupancy rates are for the individual Texas properties and the cost of space not used. If we get an update on that question, we will write about it here.

-- Trent Seibert, editor

Original Item:

Taxpayers are footing more than $83 million a year in rent for federal agencies in Texas that use less than half of the space they pay for.

This expenditure of many millions of dollars for empty space here and across the country is broughtto you by the General Services Administration. You might remember them best as the hosts of the $800,000 mind-reading, Barolo-braised, commemorative medal-awarding conference in Las Vegas that prompted director Martha Johnson to resign.

The GSA’s Public Buildings Service has under management at least 2,000 properties nationwide that are less than 10 percent occupied at a total annual rent of $600 million, 167 of those with a combined rent of $27.7 million in Texas, the Examiner study showed.

Taxpayers are paying $13 million a year for 189 rentals across the country that are less than 1 percent occupied, including an unoccupied 24,000 square-foot space in Fort Lauderdale at $1 million a year. Texas has 11 of these properties toting up more than $430,000 a year in rent.

In all, taxpayers pay $250 million a year in rent for 545 properties in Texas, 292 or almost 54 percent of them less than half occupied at the more than $83 million cost, the Examiner study showed. Sixteen of those half-full properties have rents of $1 million or more a year.

Of that total, 247 properties at a total annual rent of $61.7 million are less than a quarter occupied, 167 of them under 10 percent (viewable in map below) and 103 of them less than 5 percent occupied. (View a list or a searchable database of all properties in Texas.)

Crown jewel among the under-occupied is the swankriffic Fountain Place in Dallas where the Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 staff has its offices. According to the GSA, taxpayers pay $4.8 million a year in rent for the federal government to use 24 percent of the space.

At shimmering 919 Milam St. in Houston the U.S. Attorney’s office reports a 21 percent occupancy at a $3.3 million annual rent. This might be because at least some of the U.S. Attorney’s office staff has already moved to Wells Fargo Plaza.

The Department of Health and Human Services and the Social Security Administration have offices in the prime downtown office building at 1301 Young St. in Dallas. The rent, $2.3 million a year, also covers 81.4 percent of unused office space.

And in the hope of setting an example, the General Services Administration itself has a space less than 1 percent occupied at 333 Clay St. in Houston, a rental steal at $322,100 a year.

"There seems to be, in addition to the size, an intensified cohesion and collegiality among the (Republican) AGs," Abbott told Reuters. "Part of it is based on personality. Part of it is based on sense of purpose."

On March 26 Abbott won an appeal of the EPA’s rejection of the state’s permitting process for some power plants. The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the EPA had exceeded its authority in making its ruling.

The Reuters story singles out Abbott for his role in questioning the validity today of a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that forces Texas and other southern states to have all changes to their voting district maps approved by the federal government.

While the Supreme Court did not directly address the issue, the court voted unanimously that the lower federal courts had overreached in redrawing district maps passed by the Texas Legislature.

If you thought the $16 muffins at the Department of Justice were delicious, wait until you try the currant scones with the $100 bill baked into them at the Treasury Department.

We josh, but only a little. Giving our debt Superheroes a ridiculously easy place to start, auditors for the Justice Department’s Inspector General found those muffins and $73.3 million more in spending on conferences alone in 2009, according to a story by Bloomberg News.

“Some conferences featured costly meals, refreshments, and themed breaks that we believe were indicative of wasteful or extravagant spending,” the inspector general’s report said.

Conference spending by the Justice Department jumped from $47.8 million the previous year, according to the report. And no wonder with Cracker Jack, popcorn and candy bar breaks costing $32 a person, lunches for $76, and those cute little beef Wellington appetizers at $7.32 apiece.

These findings came from a review of just 10 conferences held between 2007 and 2009 and billed to taxpayers at a cost of $4.4 million.The 10 were selected based on a preliminary review of three dozen events, including a $540,000 conference in Grapevine and a $40,000 event in Dallas.

Although the Justice Department in 2008 established policies intended to curb the spending, inspectors found conference planners got around the limits by using funding from various Justice Department agencies.

Imagine what inspectors general might find in a small sampling of conferences hosted by all of our federal agencies. The $30 dry ethanol martinis at the Department of Agriculture and the $95 8-ounce bison tenderloin at the National Park Service. We’d recommend the $200 Almas caviar seized by our very own Department of Homeland Security customs agents, but it comes with a full body scan.